Edit: January 17th.
After Editing and tweaking the hell out of this chapter, I can safely say that this is for sure the actual version of the chapter I wanted to put on the site...the reason I didn't before...It's a long story, the details of which consist of a mix of my anger towards my bro for destroying my xbox 360 (the full details of which you'll read about below), it being 4 in the morning when I uploaded it the first time and Microsoft word's incompetence...But this is the real version I wanted to put on..so read and enjoy.
Summary: Follow the adventures of Slack, Red, Lightlad, Tag, Blizkid and Sev members of the newly organized Teen Titans H.C defending Hallow City from the perilous dangers it faces day-in-day-out. They'll have to face an assorted array of villains including, A psychotic gang lead by a team of super powered teens, a deadly bounty hunter with a mysterious link to one of the Titans, a bloodthirsty werewolf willing to turn any one in his way into a midnight snack and a multi billion dollar genetics corporation that's not all that it seems to be to name a few. But their most dangerous threats come from facing and overcoming each others assorted pasts as a team. Expect tons of guest appearances by the original Titans as well as other D.C. Comics heroes and villains.
Well, well, well. Look who came crawling back...ol' leg-less Joe himself...whoops sorry didn't realize you'd come in. Welcome back Everyone (And a warm welcome to any new comers). As always I'll be your host throughout this chapter...so saddle up the mule and prepare to be blown away...but first A little info aboot what's going down in my neck of the woods.
First Off: What started as a two parter quickly stretched past the border of 'Two-Parterville', reaching into the not so far off country of "Three Partsland", so naturally with this revolution I had to break the second part of the chapter into two separate chapters. This chapter alone is well over 14 thousand words long and was originally going to be broken into another chapter, thankfully I didn't and here you are, reading the raw, uncut and uncensored version of this chapter.
Secondly: A big thank you to Avrayne, Dragontwin, Aerisphoenix and of course Splint for reviewing in the past two chapters. I appreciate the sacrifce you made by taking the time to write a review (It seems like this is a hard thing to do as less than a quarter of the over 200 readers of this story seem uncapable of doing it). This story thanks you for keeping it alive and kicking.
Thirdly: Like I promised last chapter, This chapter is chock full of action, and I'm not talking any sissy, two word un-descriptive action, I'm talking real action, the kind that would make John Wayne, Bruce Lee, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone all cry to their mommies (O.K. Maybe it's not that great...). I should warn you, the action is pretty 'boundary-pushing' and really throws the "T" rated envelope out the window, I'm talking, limb loss, axe wounds, stab wounds, gunfire, explosions and the works...so If you're the weak of heart, preggers or any thing else that can't take the heat...I'd suggest you get out of the fire.
Fourthly: Of all the unholy luck, My brother, an Eight year old psychopath with the mind of Curious George and the strength of King Kong, decided that, what was best for my 360 was a nice "Shake the baby" session, so while it was on he unplugged it, picked it up and shook the hell out of it, which 'unexpectedly' broke it. This is the second time he's done it (The first was when he unplugged it when he was playing 'hide and go seek')...which in a way is good because all I have now to maintain my sanity is writing this story, but it's terrible because without video games I'm as bored as...well...bored can be.
Fifthly: Expanding upon the "What If This Was An Actual Series" idea I had last chapter (The part about who'd do the theme song). I came up with a short list of actors and actresses who I would consider to play the main characters (It might change in the future, this is sort of a 'rough draft'.)
Slack: Grey DeLisle (Sam From Danny Phantom)
Lightlad: Jason Mardsen (Firefly from The Batman)
Tag: Cynthia Farell (Catalina from GTA 3 and San Andreas)
Blizkid: Nancy Cartwright (Bart Simpson from The Simpsons)
Sev: Daniel Dae Kim (Jin Kwon from Lost)
Red: Cole Hauser (Johns From Pitch Black) or Michael Jai White (Spawn from…well, Spawn).
Again this means nothing, nor does it have any relevance to the story at all. I just thought I'd do it for the kicks. Also If you have any suggestions as to who might play a character, feel free to include it in your review (If you do at all).
Sixthly: I added a new summary to the story, as the old one didn't have much 'spark' to it, this action was definitely not a lame crack at attracting a new crowd of fans...what would make you say that? (Hehehe)
Finally: A disclaimer. The good Captain does not own any of the Teen Titans, Jump City or any other D.C. property owned in this non-profit work of fiction. What I do own are the characters Slack, Red, Tag, Lightlad, Blizkid and Sev, Hallow City and the plot to this story as well as a broken Xbox 360 and twelve dollars of five cent candies used to help me edit this chapter.
Now Then. This is your Captain speaking, We're hitting a little "Ass Kicking" Turbulence, I'd suggest, sitting down, buckling up and preparing to have your socks rocked by this chapter.
Chapter 6: Day One
Part 2: Meet The Reapers
Slack stormed through Biogen's large and lively courtyard angrily, not so angry at herself for how she handled the whole situation with Hoffman, but angry at the fact that she'd almost been tricked into helping a company responsible for it's own illegal trouble out of their current situation, no doubt Robin wouldn't have fallen for something that simple.
Her body was fuelled by this very anger and her mind clouded with ideas, what if she had accepted his offer? What if it was by accident? What if her refusal was part of his plan? She needed mental release, or closure, she needed to meditate, to relax her stress filled mind.
The others followed slowly behind her, knowing full well that anything they did would surely anger them, well four out of the five had that mentality, Red, acting as the group's unofficial leader, had a different image in his mind.
"Slack wait" he called out, Slack stopped abruptly, she really didn't want to talk at the moment, especially not with him, not for anger reasons but for the same reasons she found it so hard to talk with him in the gym.
She turned around slowly, her face was formed into a look of rage and sorrow; both looks were derived from her almost complete manipulation at the hands of Hoffman and Biogen.
"What?" she asked in a shaky yet still angry voice, Red noted that the emotions she was emitting were of a mixed genre and took this into consideration for what he'd say next.
"Slack, sometimes all you have to do is take the good with the bad" he said, in a calm cool voice, something unusual for Red as his normal tone of voice was harsh and rough. Slack noticed the change and glanced at him questioningly, he imagined she'd do something like that; it wasn't everyday he had showed complete compassion and remorse.
"What 'good' is there in us almost falling for Hoffman's scheme? We were almost fooled into doing his dirty work and you think there's some good in that?" She asked harshly, like her questioning look response to his question, Red had also expected her to show some sort of confusion to his statement.
"The 'good' is that we didn't fall for it, that were not his pawns, because of you're quick thinking and ability to tell we were being manipulated, for one. Another piece of 'good' is that we got to see how things work at Biogen, how well it's protected and to a slight degree what drives Hoffman and his company's regime. For example, some things I learned were that Beest carries a handgun underneath his left arm, Hoxie and his men uses the same kind of momentary stun device the police use in Jump City and that Hoffman smokes a Cuban cigar…sometimes all you gotta do is find a thin layer of good among the levels of bad" Red said, his words seemed to affect Slack to a certain degree as she no longer held her angry sorrow filled face, she instead seemed impressed by Red's display of knowledge.
"Maybe your right" She said with a soft smile, the group behind Red slowly started to brighten up with the smiles slowly beginning to return to their otherwise emotionless faces, Red saw this and smiled to himself, making sure that none of the others saw this, both as a sign of weakness and of concern.
"So…maybe we should head back?" Sev suggested, Red and the others looked over at Slack who noticed this and nodded her head slightly, Sev smiled slightly.
"You driving Red?" Sev asked, Red nodded his head and the others smile's widened, things were slowly starting to go back to normal, Red was driving, Slack was no longer upset and Sev was his usual joking self, things were looking up for them.
Two miles into the downtown of Hallow City, was a small section of Hallow City which was known and highly regarded as being both a high class and virtually crime free area of Hallow City. Some considered it to be Hallow City's own version of The Las Vegas Strip as it was both extremely glamorous with virtually every building in the area being either a exclusive club, fancy bar or casino as well as visited by many of the countries top celebrities, most of whom spend more than enough of their time at 'The Strip's' glamorous bars.
In the middle of 'The Strip' stood a large white windowless building which shared its design with visually stunning Sydney Opera House, in Sydney Australia. This building was known to residents of Hallow City as "Club Sydney", Hallow Cities most glamorous and exclusive club.
Inside Club Sydney was the usual club attire though each one was emphasized to the point where they were no longer tools but rather art. There was a large stage with two larger stages stacked underneath it, each one gradually getting larger as they reached the floor, there were also a series of large speakers where the bass of a loud Rap song pounded through the speakers. The stage was illuminated with pink and blue spotlights that flashed fast and constantly.
To the right of the stage stood a solid glass bar in the shape of a horseshoe, inside several bartenders worked hard as they busily carried out the various orders they received, across the roof were a series of metal cages which hung from a series of metal bars attached underneath the roof, inside the cages scantily clad women danced suggestively while both men and women tossed dollar bills into the cages.
Sitting at the horseshoe shaped bar were three teens, all three were aged slightly above drinking age, which in Hallow City happened to be eighteen years, making each one roughly eighteen to nineteen years of age.
The first teen was a good looking man with pale white, almost albino skin. He had combed down short brown hair and was dressed in an expensive black dress shirt, black jeans and white dress shoes, all of which added to his already large 'attraction factor'. He stood inches taller than the average partier, making him somewhere between five ten and five eleven.
The next teen was an abnormally large teen, standing at least seven foot six and had a thick and stocky body, making him appear extremely intimidating as well as fearsome. He had tanned white skin and a shaved head, leaving only a small amount of 'fur' on it. He also wore a pair of black tinted goggles strapped around his head, the bottom of his face had an excess of bushy hair that stretched from under his bottom lip to down to his chin to form what some might call a 'soul patch'. He was dressed in a dark blue baggy T-shirt, blue jeans and a pair of casual runners, not exactly 'Club' attire but still more fashionable than average street ware.
The final teen was an extremely attractive woman; she had fair white skin, deep brown eyes and stood somewhat shorter than the first teen. She had shoulder length whitish blonde hair worn in fashionable style; her model of dress also reflected her fashion sense. She wore a light black gown dress that cut off just above her knee's, giving it a somewhat flirty style to it, out of the three she could be considered the most fashionable.
The first teen sat in his stool, his arms slouched on the bar with his attention shifting through various attractive females throughout the room, and several gave him flirtatious smiles which he non-chalantly returned before moving his attention towards another female, giving her the same flirtatious smile he'd done to the previous one.
The taller teen's attention was focused on two different things, the first was the female teen in the chair beside, though it was only from time to time and the second was at the half finished drink which sat in front of him, he spun around in his chair and slammed both arms on the table roughly, shaking his and several other drinks beside his as he did, he placed his hand around the large glass, tossed it back and sipped it thoroughly.
Finally the female teen's attention was moving throughout the room, she stared across from her seat at a somewhat attractive male teen her age who gave her a meek smile, she rolled her eyes at him, the man looked depressed and slowly got out of the seat, bringing to view an attractive brown haired girl in the crowd behind him. The blonde girl smiled and winked flirtatiously at her, the brown haired girl gave her a disgusted look and quickly turned away causing the blonde to frown and spin around in her chair to face the taller teen.
"So, Fox, what's on your agenda for tonight?" the taller teen asked the blonde, his voice was deep and carried a southern drawl with it, she looked up at him and smiled.
"I was thinking of going back to the pad and watching a chick-flick…you know something I'm sure you and Cain aren't really that interested in" she said, her voice carried a soft Australian accent with it, the taller teen smiled.
"I'll watch a movie with you….if you're no one else will that is" The taller teen said nervously though Fox, the blonde, didn't seem to notice this.
"Really…that would be so sweet" she said with a smile, the taller teen smiled to himself and politely turned his seat towards the brown haired teen.
"Yo, Cain…what do we got planned for tonight?" he asked. Cain, the brown haired teen, took a minute to think before speaking.
"Nothing I can imagine, why you gonna watch one of Fox's chick flicks?" he asked tauntingly, the taller teen frowned.
"No…I was just wondering" he lied, Cain smiled to himself, he knew that Quake, the taller teen, was both lying to him as well as hiding something, though what he might be hiding he didn't know.
Just then a slight mechanical ringing sound, in the tune of "Can't Touch This" could be heard coming from one of Cain's pants pockets, Cain reached into his pocket and pulled out a small white cell phone.
"Hold on a sec, uh?" he said as he flipped the cell phone open and put it to his ear, "Yellow?" he asked into the device.
"Joseph, it's your uncle speaking. You know the one whose responsible for you being in that very club that I know you're in right now" The voice of Hoffman could be heard coming from the other line, Cain cringed and put on a fake smile.
"Oh…yeah. How's it going boss?" Cain asked, from the tone in his voice it was apparent he was using fake concern and had little enthusiasm.
"Cut the chit-chat Joseph. Now I know you lead a very busy life, using my money to pay for your non-stop partying, excessive alcohol consumption and what ever else it is you teens do with your free time. But don't forget that you and your little friends are on my payroll, meaning that I expected you to have to work for me at some point in time. Now I know you probably have a long night of hard liquor consumption ahead of you, but instead of abusing that precious liver of yours, you're going to do some business for me, understand?-" Hoffman asked, Cain sat silently for a minute thinking his options over.
"-Joseph I know your there" Hoffman's voice cut into his thoughts, Cain frowned and brought the phone back to his ear.
"Yeah, I'm here..." he said silently, trying his hardest to hide his anger from his boss, who, from the way things were going, probabbly knew how he felt towards what he had to do.
"Good. Now here's how things are going to go down-" Hoffman said giving Cain the rest of the instructions, Cain nodded his head as he listened to his uncle's plan, it was devious, well concieved and very illegal...as were most of his plans.
"-Don't mess this up Joseph, or it's your ass" Hoffman said before the line went dead. Cain held the phone in his hands for a minute, thinking about how he'd enact the plan he'd just been told to follow.
"Quake, Fox, forget doing whatever it is you were plannin' on doin' tonight. I just got word from the boss and he wants us work tonight. Go get Lizard and the rest of the gang and tell them to meet me at Hallow City's First…ok?" Cain said in a hurried panic, something which was very uncommon for him.
Fox frowned to herself, she'd really wanted to have a nice relaxing night at the 'pad', maybe watch a movie with Quake, two days of partying had taken its toll on her as she was extremely tired, but Cain was her boss, he saved her from a fate worse than death and as such she owed him, and working for him was her way of paying him back.
Quake, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind this new revelation; instead his face had a large smirk that seemed indicate that he looked forward to it, he quickly got out of his chair and stood before Cain.
"What should I tell them?" he asked, Cain smiled an evil and devious smirk, this smile seemed to be a genetic thing as it was the same smirk that Hoffman used constantly.
"Tell them: The Reapers are back in action" He said, Quake and Fox smiled a clichéd evil smile before both set off towards the exit.
Back at the tower the elevator doors whished open and with them brought the noise and bodies of four of the six teens, Tag, was busy naming fish in the pond outside the tower, and Slack was doing a form of meditation in her room in order to 'clear her mind'. Blizkid and Lightlad sat themselves in front of the TV, grabbed their video game controllers and began to play a game of "Knee deep in the Dead 11: Runing the Gauntlet Of The Dead".
Behind the group, Red lay on the couch silently, his hood covering his face in an attempt to nap. Suddenly the hood of his jacket, which had been shielding his eyes from the light of the outside world, was tossed off his face and exposed his eyes to the blinding light, he squinted quickly and covered his eyes with his right arm.
"Hey, Red, could you give me a hand with something?" a voice called out from somewhere in front of him, he slowly brought down his shielding arm and was met with the sight of Sev, who he assumed had taken off his hood.
"It depends what this 'something' is" Red said slowly spinning his body off of the couch and getting to his feet.
"That 'something' would be helping me hook the crimeputer up here" Sev said, Red shook his head sideways, his way of saying 'no'.
"Common…I can't lug all that crap up here by myself…besides it'll help us reduce the time it takes to get to a crime scene" Sev said, Red sighed slightly.
"Lead the way" he said, Sev smiled and began walking towards the elevator.
Half an hour later the duo had finished setting up the machine, which now occupied a bright and cheery corner of the room, which happened to be conveniently located beside both the Kitchen and TV. Red had done most of the 'hard lifting' or as he thought of it 'manual labour', bringing up the generally heavy computer components, monitors, base stations, the works, all while Sev sat back and watched, either way Red figured it was a good workout, seeing as how some of the heavier equipment felt like it weighed more than sixty pounds a piece.
Finally, after much hesitation and delay, Sev was done installing the device, finalizing his portion of the job. The computer station was impressive to say the least, with more than a dozen flat screened monitors attached to the back of the first wall, each one hooked up to a separate computer underneath the hardwood table which held the monitors on it. To the right of the computers and screens were five smaller monitors, each one displaying a flat heart beat as well as names, written crudely on torn paper, taped to the top of the monitor, the names read: Slack, Red, Lightlad, Tag and Blizkid, one for each member excluding himself, the last step was implanting small mechanical devices that would show not each members vital signs as well as current location.
"So how's this piece of scrap metal work?" Red asked as he ran a hand across the top of one of the smaller monitors, the one with "Red" written on it.
"First off, Its not a piece of scrap metal, this 'crap' is more accurate and useful than anything they got at the Pentagon, secondly, It works very easily, I use this computer here-" he said pointing to the largest of the computers, a tall black one with "Big Brain" spray painted on the side of it "-to hack into Hallow City's emergency lines, that includes, the fire station, the hospital and the police department. Then this baby-" he said pointing to a smaller, sleeker looking white computer, "-finds the source of the distress by hacking into the satellites surrounding Hallow City. Finally this bad boy-" he said slapping a middle sized grey computer "-is what I use to find out what exactly where up against" Sev said with much pride.
"What about the rest of em'?" Red asked. Sev smiled.
"I use the rest for other things, that little black one I use to find any information on your current whereabouts, for example: Should you be trapped in a two hundred year old Well, I just type "Well, the location and it gets me all the info I need. The other ones are used for different things, cameras, pizza ordering, the works, you name it, and it's got it" Sev said, Lightlad, who's interest had been peaked during the two's conversation, aimed a finger at one of the computers and spoke.
"And that red light?" he asked, Sev turned around quickly almost as if he were in a panic, upon sighting the light he did panic.
"Jebus (That's purposley spelt wrong just to let you know) Tapdancin'!" he shouted as he quickly leapt into the large wheeled chair to the right of the desk, the chair spun toward the computers, stopping directly in front of the signle black keyboard which was attached to each and every computer underneath machine. Sev slammed his fingers on the keyboard and began typing furiously, he stopped for a moment and looked back at the others, who now had both Tag and Slack amidst their ranks.
"It means trouble" he said in a serious tone, the others rushed over quickly, practically leaping off over each other as they did.
"What kind of trouble?" Slack asked as she reached the computer, Sev tapped a few more buttons and a 3-D image of a building was brought up on one of the computer screens.
"Bank robbery" he said tapping several more keys, Slack and the others began to feel uneasy, they'd just come from what could be described as a mission and they had every idea in their minds that this had something to do with both Hoffman and Biogen.
"Looks like the robbery's at Hallow City's First National Bank, apparently three traffic incidents have the traffic and the police pretty much backed up...that's kinda smart-" Sev said, the others looked at him questioningly.
"-In an evil, bad and not good what-so-ever way of course" He said in an attempt to cover up his smarmy comment.
"There's only one way in...and it looks like you could fit the T-Car in there..if Red's as good of a triver as he thinks he is" Sev said bringing up a 2-D image of a bridge connected to the bank, which showed a small hole, roughly a half a foot larger than the T-Car.
"Then it looks like we're going to have to take care of this" Slack said heroically, the others found great comfort in her level of heroism and the fact that she was no longer bad mood.
"Well before you go I aught to give you some 'gifts'." Sev said pulling open a drawer exposing several objects which were covered by a small white cloth, Sev grabbed the cloth and tugged it off, revealing the objects in question to be a series of small earpieces.
Sev handed each member of the team an ear piece, which they placed in and around their ear.
"It's a two way communicator, I can talk to you and vice versa…should the need ever arise that is" Sev said as he finished handing the last one to Lightlad who proceeded to speak loudly into it, causing his voice to be heard on both Sev's speakers as well as each other members headset.
"Wicked" he said as he finished speaking into it.
"So…who's ready to kick some ass?" Red asked, the others smiled and headed towards the elevator.
"Have fun ladies" Sev said, Red smirked and waved him goodbye at the same moment that the elevator doors opened. The group walked in and waved a final goodbye to Sev, who sat comfortably in his chair.
Half a mile from 'The Strip' was another of Hallow City's famous locations, a large white building which was almost half the size of an average sky scraper in both length and width. The building was known to the people of Hallow City as "Hallow City's First" or as it was really titled "Hallow City's First International Bank", it being the first bank built in Hallow City. A brief history lesson at the local library would explain that it was built in 1923 and helped to place Hallow City on the map as it helped to finance soldiers in the second World War.
To this day the bank held more than seventy million dollars in savings and over fifteen million in the contents of safety deposit boxes, all of which were securely hidden behind a thick vault door connected to a series of computers which helped to prevent robbery.
The bank was located on a small man made 'island' surrounded on all four sides by water with the back of the bank being exposed to the river that separated Hallow City from it's neighbouring city of Carter City. There were three bridges that connected the island back with the rest of Hallow City, all of which were all at the moment blocked by a series of flaming over turned buses, which helped to prevent any form of motorized vehicles from getting to the island.
The inside of the building was every bit as astonishing architecturally as the outside; the inside had an artistic touch to it with large white pillars attached to the walls of the lobby and a solid marble floor, shined to the point where staring at it would allow you a better reflection than your average mirror, there was also a large staircase that led to the second floor of the building.
The second floor was larger than the first and featured all of the working equipment; it was there that the tellers, accountants and security guards conducted their business, with the vault located in the large area underneath the stairs which was off-limits to any one but security and those with the proper security clearance, for obvious reasons.
Currently all the patrons in the lobby sat on the floor on their knee's with their hands raised above their heads, quivering and shaking in fear as several masked teens, all dressed in black and carrying dangerous firearms, aimed around the room randomly, firing in the air every so often to emphasize the point that "They weren't messing with anyone".
Inside the security room stood Cain and Fox, both of whom were dressed entirely in black clothing much like their cohorts, though each one's clothing was stylized a little differently than their 'men's' clothing was.
For Cain he dressed in a black hooded coat, much like the one Red wore constantly, though his lacked the red "R", black jeans with an empty leg holster wrapped around the right leg, and a pair of white sneakers. He twirled a large gold pistol carelessly around his right index finger, stopping every so often to aim it at the duo of security guards who lay unconscious on the floor to the right of him, he'd squeeze the trigger when he did, though, due to the guns unloaded nature that action only administered a 'click' noise with each squeeze.
Fox was dressed in a black hoodie, jeans and wore a dark black knit cap atop her head in an effort to keep the hair out of her eyes, her face was burrowed into a look of anguish and worry as she moved her eyes from screen to screen, Cain noticed this, placed his pistol back in it's holder and looked up at her.
"You alright Fox?" he asked, concern was heavy in his voice, though he wouldn't admit it to her, he felt as though the two had a brother-sister like relation ship, where he was the older brother and she was the younger sister.
"I'm fine, I'm just worried" she said as she stared worriedly at the monitor, onscreen, Quake, who was dressed in an all-black version of his 'club' clothing, including black pants, black muscle shirt and a black bandanna wrapped around his forehead with the black tinted goggles rested gently at the tip of the bandanna, stood in the vault, beside him stood a trembling security guard half his size, from the looks Quake was giving the guard harsh orders, most of them directing him to open the vault.
Suddenly a soft mechanical hissing sound was heard, it coming from a small walkie-talkie on the end of the table, right beside the many screens which showed the random events happening all around the bank.
Cain spun around quickly and picked up the device, he held it to his mouth, pressed a small, round button on the side of the device.
"Yeah?" he asked franticly, the voice on the other side came out cackled and harsh.
"….Cain….backup….Ti-….Can y- hear me?" the voice on the other line asked in a panicked cackle, Cain pressed the button again and spoke into it for a second time.
"Cruz, what the hell's going on over there man?" he asked into the device, his question went unanswered with a simple statement yet powerfull answer taking its place.
"It's the Titans" the voice said before the line went dead.
In the lobby all six of the armed thugs aimed their weapons at the door, which was now reduced to a smoking hole in the wall with the door having been blasted off it's hinges seconds ago by a large explosion, in it's place was a thick wall of grey smoke in which nothing what so ever was visible.
"Cain, what do you want us to do man?" Cruz, the leader of the group of thugs in the lobby, asked into the walkie-talkie.
Back in the security room, Cain recalled the instructions his uncle had given him, he'd asked Cain to "Permanently retire The Titans", Cain stared for a minute at the large screen, which showed his men aiming their firearms at the opening in the room, he swallowed and brought the walkie-talkie to his mouth.
"Cruz, I want you to kill the Titans" he said before dropping the walkie-talkie to the floor.
"You heard the boss, waste em'!" Cruz shouted angrily, the others nodded their heads 'yes', aimed their weapons at the doorway and opened fire at the opening.
Dozens of bullets exploded out of the barrels of the thugs guns and flew at break neck speeds towards the open doorway, this continued for a short time as the thugs fired round after found from their guns, exhausting there ammo at a rapid pace. The bullets cut through the deep layer of smoke that still surrounded the door, slowly the sound of gunfire ceased to be heard with the 'click-click' of empty guns taking its place. the thugs lowered their weapons, they no longer had any ammo to fire at the Titans which angered them as it was easily the most fun part of the whole heist, seeying as how Cain and the others tasked them with very little more than 'standing watchout'.
Finally the smoke cleared and left Cruz and the others standing in a state of disbelief at the sight before their eyes, the cleared smoke revealed the image of five teens, all unharmed, surrounded by a bright blue orb which, upon closer inspection, would reveal it to be the work of Lightlad's light manipulating powers. At the base of the orb sat several dozen bullet shells, all of which had been destroyed by the force of the impact with the orb.
Slowly the blue orb around the teens began to diminish into the air. Cruz, as well as his men, all had angered looks on their faces at this point, they'd thought for sure they had killed them. As the orb around the teen's finished disapearing, all five teens moved forwards and entered the bank. Cruz, past his boiling point, looked over at his men, who stood in complete shock and awe, he burrowed his brows into a angry frown.
"Take them out!" He shouted to his men angrily; the group of thugs holstered their weapons, some in actual holsters and the rest shoving their empty guns into the back's of their pant's, and rushed towards the Titans, who all stood awaiting their advances.
A duo of thugs, both dressed entirely in black clothing, rushed at Slack. The first thug's hand's were rolled into fists, he looked like they had no problem hitting a girl which was good because Slack had no problem hitting them.
The first thug took a swing at Slack's head with his right fist, Slack quickly ducked under the blow, dodging it swiftly and just as quickly kicked her right foot at him, striking the thug in the soft flesh of his kidney; he growled, grabbed his kidney and fell to the floor in a heap.
Slack stood up and just as quickly leaned her body backwards, just in time to avoid a fierce right hook thrown by the second thug, she grabbed his hand before he had time to retrieve it, and using it as leverage, kicked him in the back, then head, then back again, the third kick seemed to do the trick as the punk's body went limp and his unconscious body slumped to the floor, Slack smiled, released her grip on his arm, which fell to the floor roughly, and turned her attention towards Red, who was squaring off against a second duo of thugs.
The first of the three thugs rushed at Red, in his hands he carried a small black handled switch blade and from the look in his eyes, Slack could tell he knew how to use it.
The thug stabbed the blade forwards at Red, who dodged the blow by leaping backwards, behind the second thug, who brandished a large silver baseball bat, wound the bat behind his back, ready to swing it into Red's head, this action was suddenly stopped by a blast of thick yellow light that collided with his side, sending his body flying across the room, only to be stopped when it came in contact with one of the many pillars attached to the walls, Slack looked to the right of Red where Lightlad stood, a smile on his face as a yellow glow around his right fist slowly diminished, he shot Slack a non-chalant glance before turning his attention back towards his own opponents.
Red wrapped his arm around the knife wielding thug's arm, preventing him from doing much but squirm with his right arm as he tried to escape his 'captor', the punk threw a series of violent punches into Red's chest with his left arm all of which were delivered weakly due to his in-efficient use of his left arm. Red turned his head to the thug's, who had a terrorized look in his eyes, Red smirked, brought his head back and with one swift movement head butted the thug with full force. The thug's head flew backwards and a thin pool of blood flew from his now broken nose, Red released his grip from around the thug's arm, causing the thug to fall backwards onto the floor.
Across the room Blizkid and Tag stood together, one behind the other with their back's touching, slowly a group of several thugs, Tag counted at least six on her side and Blizkid the same, formed a circle around them, edging closer, whistling, cat calling and hooting at Tag as they did.
"I got the hot Spanish chick" one of the thugs, dressed in the same clothes as the rest, save for a white Richard Nixon mask, said winking disturbingly at Tag. Tag gave him a disgusted look before bringing her fists up to her body, Blizkid stood with his arms at his sides, both of which had the tips of their fingers covered by a smoking white ice that slowly climbed up from his hands to back of his elbow, completely covering his fore-arms.
"You can have the hottie all you want, I call the blue freak" The thug to the right of the first cat calling thug said, this one dressed identically to his partner aside from the mask which instead of a Richard Nixon mask was a typical blue face mask.
Tag looked worriedly at Blizkid, who stood behind her with his own look of fear plastered on his face, she leaned her head backwards towards his ear.
"You think we stand a chance?" She whispered into his ear, Blizkid shivered a tad before leaning his own head back towards hers.
"I dunno" he said whispered back to her before turning his attention back towards the slowly advancing group of thugs. Tag, knowing full well that the two of them stood no chance against wrapped her left and right arms around Blizkid's, which felt icy cold in contrast to her own.
With a blink of Tag's eyes both teens disappeared in a puff of white smoke. The thugs looked around worriedly, unsure as to where their opponents had escaped to; finally their eyes were met with the sight of a series of solid circular balls made of solid ice speeding towards them, the group had little time to do much else but curse before their bodies were pounded by dozens of the projectiles, which, unbeknownst to them, came shooting out of Blizkid's ice covered arms. The full force of Blizkid's icy projectiles forced the thugs to fall to the floor in defeat, rendering them completely unconscious.
Finally all the thugs, excluding Cruz, who'd taken the time during his men's fight with the Titans to rush off and warn Cain about them, lay sprawled across the floor and completely unconcious.
Slowly the many hostages got off their knees and began to regain their calm and cool demeanour; several brushed themselves off before slowly approaching the Titans. A short fit woman in her mid thirties, carrying a small child in her arms approached Slack with tears in her eyes, she smiled at Slack and uttered "Thank you" in a quiet whisper before turning her attention towards the 'exit' and slowly heading out of it.
Several more men and woman, all of whom had just been hostages in the bank robbery, uttered their thanks to the Titans, almost all of whom looked visibly traumatized by the experience, one, a young girl at least six or seven, wrapped her arms around Slack's leg's, before rushing out the exit.
The team stood in a glorified stance for a moment, basking in both the warming glow of their victorious triumph over their adversaries as well as the heart-warming and self rewarding feeling that each one, including a quiet Red, felt deep in their hearts.
As the last of the no longer hostages left through the 'exit' the team turned their attention towards the back of the bank, a large stairwell as well as two long hallway's on opposite ends of the stairs, they had a lot of ground to cover and a short time to do it in, the real culprits were still at large and, to their knowledge, within the vicinity of the bank, they weren't done here, not by a long shot.
Cruz rushed down the hallway that led to the security room, his mind wrapped around the idea that somehow he held knowledge that his boss and second in command didn't, he approached the door and kicked it open roughly, shocking Fox, who sat in one of the two leather chairs in front of the screen, as he did.
"We have a problem" He said, his voice was shaky, raspy and out of breath. He took a moment to stop and breath, he'd just run the entire length of a stairwell as well as a long, long, hallway which had taken up every last breath of air from his lungs.
"Your God damn right we do!" Cain said angrily, grabbing Cruz by the neck and slamming his body against the back wall of the room, Cruz placed both of his hands on Cain's arm and feebly attempted to stopCain from choking the life out of him, his efferts were in vain as Cain was nearly three times stronger than himself.
From where she was seated Fox looked reasonably disturbed with the events unfolding in front of her, so disturbed that she turned her head away from the two and tried her hardest to pretend the events weren't happening behind her.
"You were supposed to take them out…now I have to do your dirty work!" Cain said angrily, he released his grip around Cruz's neck, who fell to the floor with a 'thump', landing roughly on his back, Cruz started panting and moaning as he slowly regained his breath.
Cain placed a hand on his forehead, putting pressure on his temples, he hadn't wanted to kill them himself, he'd wanted the Titan's blood to be on someone else's hands…but it was too late for that now, now he had to take over this whole thing himself, now he had to kill them. He sighed heavily, let loose a deep breath of air and slumped over in his chair, he sat for a good minute, thinking of a way to exterminate the Titans,
"Alright, Cruz. You go see what Lizard's up too, I haven't heard from him in a half an hour. Fox, I want you to try and subdue as many of them as you can" Cain ordered his 'men'.
Both of his cohorts nodded and quickly and swiftly exited the room, as they did Cain reached into his pocket and pulled out a small silver flask, he brought it to his mouth and took a long sip of the hard liquor it contained, he stopped as it reached the half empty point and dropped it back into his pocket, he looked up at the monitor when something caught his eye, that 'something' happened to be a 'someone' and that 'someone' happened to be Slack.
He brought his head up and fumbled with the camera controlls untill the camera zoomed in on her image, he smiled to himself as he watched her regain her breath from her fight.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here" he said as the camera finished its zoom on Slack, he smiled his devilish smile and reached for the small walkie-talkie, grabbed it and brought it to his mouth.
"Fox?" He asked into the device, there was a soft mechanical cackle before a soft Australian voice responded with a "Yeah?"
"Don't take out the leader…I think I'll handle that responsibility" he said into the device.
"Gotcha" came his response. Cain smiled to himself, drew the pistol from its holster and pulled the slender golden slide back, loading the first shot into the golden chamber, he stuffed the pistol back in it's holder, gazed at Slack on the camera screen and smiled.
"Let's have some fun shall we?" he said to himself.
"Now that was a scuffle" Red said, moving out of the shadowed area of the lobby, Slack and the others nodded their heads in response.
"No doubt there are more of them around here" Slack said regaining her prior aggressive stance, it always paid to be prepared especially when the punk's were packing the kind of weaponry they were.
"We should split up" Lightlad suggested as they stared at the large open building ahead of them, Red stared questingly at him.
"What is this Scooby Doo?" he asked, sarcasm playing off his tone, Lightlad raised his arm towards Red and slowly began to raise his middle finger at Red, Red glared angrily at Lightlad who gave him mocking puppy dog eyes.
"I think Lightlad's right, we should split up, we can cover more ground that way" Slack said, Red huffed his opposition, swallowed his pride and nodded in agreement.
"I call the left hallway" he said, Lightlad smirked.
"I got the right one" he said, his decision to explore the hallway across from Red's only increased Red's anger.
"Me and Blizkid will take the upstairs right hall" Tag said with Blizkid nodding his head in agreement.
"Then I guess that leaves me with the left one" Slack said with a smile, the group nodded their heads, exchanged looks of concern for their team-mates and then proceeded to head off into their designated hallways.
Slack walked down her hallway slowly, planning her every step with precision and calculation, for all she knew there could be a hundred more thugs behind the next wall, and as such she wanted to be prepared for that possibility.
She came around a bend in the hallway which led her too a large open room, two stories high with dozens of book shelf's attached to the walls, this looked to be some sort of library of sorts, no doubt all of them were books about accounting and money transfers, though none of this peeked her interest as much as what, or rather who stood in the middle of the room.
Standing in the middle of the room was Cain, his golden pistol drawn and aimed for the middle of Slack's forehead. Slack swallowed, she knew both from the size, design and brand of gun he carried as well as how he carried the gun, that with the squeeze of his finger he'd blow her brains across the wall behind her.
"Hello gorgeous" Cain said with a sly grin on his face as he cocked the pistol with his thumb, Slack swallowed softly and stood with a mix of fear and defensiveness.
Tag and Blizkid walked side-by-side down their hallway, from their previous experience facing adversaries the two realized that they worked better as a duo than as single entities, this was due mostly to the fact that neither had any sort of hand-to-hand combat skills and relied mostly on their powers to help themselves out.
The two came to the end of the hall were they stopped and moved into a room directly in front of them, the room looked, unbeknownst to the two of them, identical to the one Slack was in at the moment with the only differences being that instead of book shelves, the room had walls with large file cabinets built into them, for what reason they were they're, the two could only guess as unlike Slack's room they're was no indicating sign on the wall to explain what each section was for.
As Blizkid stepped into the a bright green mist like glow struck him in the back, launching his body forwards, stopping only when it crashed into one of the file cabinets, his body hit the cabinet hard enough to leave a large dent in it and render him completely unconscious.
Tag spun around quickly too see Fox standing behind her, her hands had the same bright green mist like glow around them that the blast Blizkid had been hit with had.
"Oh…you're cute" Fox said flirtatiously, her comment obviously aimed at Tag, who blushed slightly, though she wasn't sure why she did, before bringing both her fists up towards her body in defense, Fox smiled, again flirtatiously.
"It's going to be so hard to hurt you, cutie" She said with a smile before bringing her fists up towards her body, the green glow increasing as she did, Tag looked over at where Blizkid lay, she then returned her glare to Fox who stood with a cocky, yet still flirty smirk on her face.
Lightlad stood in the open doorway that led into the vault, his gaze focused on Quake, who stood with both of his fists smashed into the vault, pulling it forcibly towards his body, it looked as though his crude display of strenght was working as the vault door was open slightly.
To Quake's right lay the guard he'd been shouting threats at earlier, Lightlad charged up a, what he called, 'light blast', a blast of energy fashioned the same way as the ones his father used when fighting The Original Titans. According to his father 'it was nothing too fancy, just a small orb of concentrated light derived from a mix of solar and made made energy' though the logic of this was lost on Lightlad, any one willing to learn about it would learn that the sceince behind it was good enough to garner Lightlad with a sceintific award.
Lightlad aimed his right arm at Quake and stood silently, focusing his arm for a critical point that would knock the behemoth out, he sidestepped to the left slowly, trying his hardest not to make any noise, unfortunately luck wasn't on his side as he accidentally slammed into a large shelf behind him, he panicked as a small jar of bolts fell of the top shelf and came crashing down to the floor, making an exceptionally loud noise as it hit the floor.
Quake spun around quickly, his large anger filled eyes met with Lightlad's fear full ones. Lightlad charged a 'light blast' up in his right arm; Quake saw this, smirked and brought his right leg backwards.
"How nice, a brand new chew toy" He said with a smirk before he kicked off of his legs and began a intense rush towards Lightlad, whose look of panic only increased as he drew closer.
Red walked down his hall stealthily, halfway down he'd spotted one of the thug's, the same one he'd seen rushing away from the fight earlier, running in the direction he was heading in. Red wasn't sure if he'd been spotted when he ran of and he sure wasn't taking any chances, he crept along the wall slowly, making sure that each step he took couldn't be heard by anyone but himself.
Finally he made it to the end of the hall. As far as he could tell no one was around the corner he had to cross to get to where he needed to go, he sighed a sigh of relief and released his body from the wall, suddenly and unexpectedly a large red fire-axe was swung violently at his body from around the corner, Red dodged backwards quickly, unfortunately it wasn't quick enough as the axe slashed deeply into his chest before slamming itself into the portion of the wall where Red had rested his body seconds before. The axe stuck into the wall, exposing it's handler to be Cruz, the teen Red had seen rushing down the hall.
Red placed a hand on his chest; there was now a thick diagonal gash from above his right bicep down to the skin which comforted his left kidney, had Red not been super-human the force of the axe would surely have taken him down, or possibly killed him.
Red raised his hand, which was covered in his blood, wiped it across the left side of his jacket and struck a defensive pose, ready and awaiting Cruz's next blow.
Cruz, pulled the axe from the wall forcefully and took a horizontal swing at Red's head, which Red dodged by ducking under, again Cruz swung, this time downwards and again Red dodged it, this time by leaping out of the way, again the axe found itself stuck in the ground. Cruz tugged desperately on the handle in an attempt to remove the blade from the ground, but it was of no use as Red, who'd taken the time to get back to his feet, tackled Cruz against the wall, grappling him against the wall so that Cruz couldn't use either his arms or legs.
Cruz managed to wrestle his left leg out of Red's hold and kicked it up between his legs, hitting Red in the groin roughly. Red gritted his teeth and fell to one knee, giving Cruz enough time to escape his captivity and grab the axe's handle and pulled it out of the ground forcefully.
Red, still in a certain amount of pain from Cruz's cheap shot to the groin, managed to dodge another blow, though not as well as he'd done before as the axe sliced down on the tip of his tail, slicing three inches of the tail off, Red cried out in pain and quickly brought his tail back behind his leg.
Cruz smiled at the pain he'd inflicted on Red and tossed the axe forwards so that the axe's flat surface slammed into Red's face, knocking him to the floor, Cruz brought the axe back to his body, moved to over Red's body, raised it above his head and was prepared to slice deep into Red's chest, a move which would surely end Red's life, despite his super-human status.
Red stared first at the blood covered tip of the axe, then his bleeding tail and finally at Cruz's chest, he felt an intense amount of anger build up in his body and with what could only be described as a product of anger, he kicked both of his feet outwards in a split like kick, both feet found their targets behind Cruz's shins, tripping him and sending him falling backwards to the floor.
Red then proceeded to get to his feet at the same time that Cruz got to his, both made a mad dash for the axe, Cruz, who was much more nimble than Red, reached it first by jumping to his knee's, he picked up the blade and swung it at Red's knee cap's.
Red leapt over the axe and kicked the handle of it strongly, knocking the axe out of his hand and sending it spiralling through the air for a short second before it struck Cruz right in the side of his leg. Cruz screamed in pain and tried to pry the axe's blade from his leg, unfortunately Cruz's hands quickly became drenched in his own blood and caused each of his attempts to remove the blade fail as his hand continually slipped off the blade.
Red, who during this time had strolled behind Cruz, grabbed the handle forcibly and with one rough pull, pulled the axe from Cruz's leg, but not before purposely turning the axe as to inflict more damage than was neccisary, this move was inspired by Red's anger at the pain Cruz had inflicted upon him.
Cruz fell to the floor as the blade came out of his leg, he then grabbed the damaged part of his leg and rocked back in forth in the fetal position while continually murmuring "Mommy" over and over. Red held the axe in his right hand, and knelt down to Cruz's level, hovering over him.
"I don't wanna die" Cruz said pleadingly at Red, Red could see tears in his eyes as he grappled his bloody leg.
"You're not going to die" Red said angrily, he grabbed the shoulder of Cruz's hoodie and tearing it off, he then proceeded to wrap the 'bandage' around the wound, Cruz's eyes cleared up and he gave Red a questioning look.
"What are you doing?" he asked, Red sighed and finished wrapping the bandage around Cruz's leg.
"Despite what you might think, I'm not a bad guy, and I'm not going to let you bleed to death here…as much as I'd like too" Red said moving raising his body above Cruz's.
"This is the part I like the most" Red said, kicking his left foot into Cruz's head, not hard enough to cause serious damage, only hard enough to knock him out.
"Now then" He said grabbing the axe off of the floor, he raised it upwards and wrapped his hand around the small portion of the axe just underneath the blade.
He walked around the hall and into the room which he'd wanted to enter earlier, the room was large and completely dark, Red, having nocturnal vision could see perfectly well in the dark.
The room looked like it was going through a renovation as half of the walls were boarded up with thick pieces of wood, the floor was covered with a mix of wood and marble, the roof was nonexistent, replaced by several long pieces of wood that stretched across and exposed the above level of the building, also several toolboxes of all colours sat across the room.
As Red entered deeper into the room a hunched over humanoid figure, walking on his hands and feet stalked after him, using the wooden supports across the roof to quickly gain on him, though the figure moved stealthily, so stealthily that Red didn't notice it at all.
As Red stopped so did the figure, Red looked around, he couldn't help shake the feeling he was being watched, slowly he leaned his head upwards to be met with the sight of a body leaping towards him, he leapt out of the way but it was too late, the figure slammed into his body, sending him staggering across the room and the fire axe flying out of his hand and away from his body. Red's body came to a stop when he slammed into a table roughly, knocking off a bright red toolbox on top of it, the contents of which dispursed across the floor.
Red sat up and regained his posture, the figure emerged in front of him, exposing himself to the small, now working light, above their heads and gave Red full view of him.
The figure was a tall, scrappy looking teen, dressed in a thick dark black vest, grey camouflaged cargo pants and wore a pair of tipless black gloves over his hands, his face was hidden behind his excessively long black hair, which stretched down to his neck.
"Who the hell are you?" Red asked as he got to his feet, moving his body away from the table and closer to the teen, the teen raised his head, shook the hair from his face and smirked, an animalistic smirk.
"I'm Lizard and you're lunch meat" he said, his voice was deeply inhuman, sounding more like Red was talking with a cobra than a human being.
Red raised his fists and stared tauntingly at Lizard, Lizard smiled, drew his arms to his body, crossed them and with the squeezing of his knuckles, two thick bone-like blades shot out of the back of his forearms, Red raised his eyebrows in intrigue.
"It's lunch time!" Lizard said rushing towards Red, who stood waiting for Lizards advances.
Cain stood with his gun aimed at Slack's head, his finger slightly shaking on the trigger; he pushed the fear from his mind and moved his left arm to the underneath his right arm, steadying his handle on the pistol.
From where she stood, Slack reached behind her back slowly and pulled a long slender boomerang like device from her utility belt, this action went unnoticed by Cain, who stood with the gun still aimed at her head, his finger gripped the trigger as he prepared to squeeze it, ending Slack's life.
In a quick instance, that seemed to move in slow motion to the two teen's, Slack tossed the blade from behind her back at the same moment that Cain squeezed the trigger of his gun, the bullet flew through the air, as did the boomerang, which hit and knocked the bullet out of focus before spiralling through the air and coming to it's stop when it stabbed into the slide of Cain's gone, knocking it from his hand and sending it across the room.
Slack took this time to run at Cain, who stood defensively, as she reached him she punched her right arm forwards quickly, Cain, moving at lightning quick speed's, dodged the blow and moved behind Slack, before kicking her in the leg roughly, she fell to her knee and delivered a spiral kick backwards, a move intended to trip Cain, but Cain was much too quick and leapt over her leg before kicking her in the chest, with enough force to send her body sliding across the room.
'What's with this guy?' she thought to herself as she got to her feet, he moved faster than her, kicked harder than her, and from the looks of things had the same martial arts skills as her.
Cain rushed forwards, Slack stood defensively, ready to block any punch that Cain sent at her but Cain threw punches and kicks quicker than she could block them, this was seriously messed up, no one could best her in combat…well no one aside from Robin that was, but she'd only sparred with him.
Cain delivered a final kick to Slack's chest; this one knocked her back into the bookshelf, rattling the books above her head. She slumped down to the floor in what could be described as her defeat, though she wasn't unconscious, just extremely tired from the beating she'd received at the hands of the much too quick Cain.
Cain knelt do her level and smiled, the same smile that Hoffman smiled at her as he'd gotten her and her team to forcibly exit the building.
"Guess I'm just too good for you, huh?" He said as he got to his feet, suddenly the wail of police sirens shattered the otherwise peaceful soundlessness of the room, Cain looked around in a panic, somehow the cop's had managed to get through the barricades, he looked over at Slack, who was now fully unconscious.
He ran across the room to where his pistol sat on top of a pile of books, he grabbed it with his right hand, pulled the slide back again, arming another shot, should his first one have been messed up from the boomerang, and aimed the gun at Slack's head.
He held the gun pointed at her head for sometime before he realised, for whatever reason it was, he couldn't do it, he couldn't kill her, not because she was a Titan, but something about her, made him unable to due it, instead he tucked the gun back in it's holster and quickly darted out the room and down the hall towards where Fox was fighting Tag.
Down the hall from where Cain and Slack had just fought, Tag and Fox were having their own duel, well rather a violent game of Cat and Mouse, Fox would fire her greenish blasts at Tag, who would blink her eyes and teleport away, this had been going on for the past five to ten minutes and Fox was getting fed up with it.
As Tag appeared behind her, Fox spun around and blasted a bolt of greenish smoke at her, Tag disappeared and the blast hit a file cabinet, exploding it internally and forcing thousands of papers to fly across the room.
"We can play this game all day, cutie" She said as she fired yet again at where Tag had reappeared too, the blast again missed Tag and forced another cabinet to explode into a mass of papers.
"But I know one thing that'll get you to come out of your shell" she said aiming both her hands at Blizkid's unconscious figure, Tag, who had transported atop a tall cabinet behind Fox, gave a horrified look before blinking her eyes and reappearing in front of both Blizkid and Fox's arms.
"There you go. Smart, sexy and loyal to her friends, is there anything she can't do" Fox said with a smile, as she flirtatiously described Tag aloud, Tag blushed slightly and Fox smiled again.
"It pains me to do this to you sweetheart..it really does" She said raising her arms, Tag, who knew if she moved that Blizkid would get hit, and she couldn't bare to see the younger boy hurt. She lowered her head and awaited the blast, which came fast and hard, knocking her across the room forcefully, she finally stopped when she slammed into the cabinet behind her, her unconscious body landing next to Blizkid's.
"Common' Fox, We gotta go" Cain said rushing into the room, Fox turned towards him, smiled and turned her attention back towards the unconscious Tag, she blew her a kiss and uttered "Sorry" under her breath, both things went pretty much un-noticed by Cain, who stood constantly shifting his weight in the doorway.
"What about the others?" She asked, her concern for her friends outweighing her concern for herself, Cain sighed.
"The others can be replaced by others" He said with a smile "Now common'…we should go save Quake and Lizard".
Fox nodded her heads and exited out of the room with Cain, the two of them were now on their way to evacuate Quake.
Back in the vault, Lightlad aimed his right arm at Quake's face, Quake, who was halfway across the room, ran towards him with a rhino's speed and force, ripping tables and chairs in half as he decreased the distance between himself and Lightlad.
Lightlad centered his aim directly in between his forehead and jaw, a perfect hit to the eye's, he released a small yellow bolt which found it's way, like he'd predicted, perfectly into his eyes, causing Quake to stop his rush, shout out loud and fall to one knee directly in front of Lightlad, who stood aiming both arms, which both emitted a bright yellow glow, at Quake's head, he wasn't taking chances, Quake was a 350 pound juggernaut and should he get the chance he would crush Lightlad like a pancake.
"Give up?" He asked with a half panic and half serious voice, Quake's face light up with a smirk and he started to chuckle loudly.
"What's so funny?" Lightlad asked moving closer to Quake's body, Quake raised his head to face Lightlad before he began to speak.
"Your about to find out why they call me Quake!" he shouted, using the muscles in his legs he pushed himself off the ground and thrust his body at Lightlad's, Lightlad fired both of his charged blasts at Quake, both struck his back, burning through his costume and deep into his flesh, though Quake seemed unaffected by them.
As he reached Lightlad's body he wrapped his arms around his chest and tackled him roughly, slamming his body through the thick plaster wall strongly, Lightlad felt the full force of this blow and it hurt!
Quake continued to tackle Lightlad down the hall before slamming his body into a hard metal wall, stopping his tackling spree and creating a large body shaped dent in the wall, he released his grip on Lightlad, who fell to the floor in a violent clump, barely able to move through the intense amount of pain he was in.
He crawled across the floor in an effort to escape Quake, Quake shook his head roughly and turned to face the crawling Lightlad, he smiled a vicious smile and slowly walked towards Lightlad, who had managed to put a half a foot between him and Quake. Quake quickly reached the point where Lightlad had crawled, bent down and grabbed him by his leg and shoulder, using a portion of his strength he raised Lightlad's body above his head and using all of his strength he tossed Lightlad through a thick glass window attached to the upper part of the wall he'd been smashed into.
Lightlad crashed through the window fiercely, cutting his face, arms and wrists on the broken glass that the crash had created, his body stopping only when it slammed onto the floor, causing him much an intense amount of pain. Quake stood outside the room peering in through the broken window at Lightlad who lay sprawled across the floor, he smirked a fulfilled smirk, taking great pride in the damage he'd inflicted upon the younger teen, with one swift movement Quake kicked the door to the room open, slamming the door with such force that it fell of it's hinges.
Lightlad spun his head around to see Quake approaching him, he raised his left arm weakly at him and attempted to charge up a 'light-blast', Quake saw what he was doing, smirked and kicked Lightlad roughly in the chest, sending his body flying across the floor, his body only stopped when it slammed into the farthest wall of the room.
Lightlad coughed up a mouthful of blood, something he attributed to the broken ribs he could feel poking against his stomach, he was in terrible shape and Quake was taking no mercy on him. Slowly he sat himself up against the wall using his last bit of strength, he opened both his eyes to see Quake slowly approaching him, a smirk plastered on his face, there was no stopping him he'd just keep coming and coming, like a steroid induced Energizer Bunny
As Quake reached him Lightlad pondered his options, Quake would either kill him or leaving him wishing he had…either one was bad in his book.
Quake bent down to Lightlad's level, he grabbed Lightlad by the neck roughly, using both of his arms and brought him up to face him face-to-face before raising his body above his, he tightened his grip around Lightlad's neck, slowly draining both the air and life out of him, Lightlad used what little strength he had and focused it on breathing, he took a deep breath in, held it and breathed outwards before repeating his actions again, he was savouring each breath he took in knowing that they might be his last.
Quake saw that Lightlad was barely able to hold on to his own life, he smirked and slowly loosened his grip around his neck, Lightlad started panting heavily, like a animal in heat, Quake smiled and tightened his grip around Lightlad's neck, he wasn't done with him yet, he slammed Lightlad's body against the wall hard several times before holding him in another stranglehold, this one only lasted for several seconds as he could tell that Lightlad couldn't take any more, he smiled before dropping his body roughly on the ground.
Lightlad crawled up against the wall, unable to do much else but wait for what he assumed to be his impending doom at the hands of a vicious sadist, again Quake lowered himself to his level and faced him face-to-face, though this time he brought him up a foot by tugging at his hair.
"Now, maybe if you beg for your life, I'll have a little mercy" he said, Quake's grip on his hair was enough to make him want to beg for his life, but he had morals and decencies…at least as a hero.
"Bite me" Lightlad said spitting in Quake's face, Quake's smirk lowered into an angry frown as he used his wrist to wipe away the spit.
"Not wise" he said, he brought his knee backwards and with one quick movment slammed it into Lightlad's chest roughly, he grabbed Lightlad by the hair and slammed him head first into the floor using his hair as a 'handle', he pulled Lightlad up and proceeded to repeat his actions two more times, by the third time Lightlad's entire face was drenched in blood with streams coming from several deep gashes across his forehead as well as his nose, which appeared, and felt, like it was broken.
"How 'bout now?" Quake asked, Lightlad, in too much pain to do much else, spit blood into his face, Quake again frowned, sat Lightlad on his knee's and with one rough movement, elbowed him across the face with enough force to knock him out. The intensity of the blow sent his body slamming to the floor and cracked the solid marble frame, Quake smiled and raised his left foot above Lightlad's head, ready to stomp on his head, ending the teen's life with one swift movement.
"Quake, common' man let's go, the cops are all over this place" he heard Cain's voice call from behind him, Quake removed his foot from above Lightlad's head and turned towards his two team-mates.
"Another day Light-bright, another day" he said, his comment directed at Lightlad who lay bleeding on the floor, he smiled to himself and walked towards his team-mates.
"What about Lizard?" He asked, Cain and Fox smiled, that was were they were headed next.
Two hallways down from the trio of villians Red and Lizards stood in defensive poses, each one ready to take the other one down.
Lizard spun his body around quickly; thrusting both his arms forward in the process, his right arm blade narrowly missed striking Red's eye, instead slicing deeply into his left ear and temple causing him much pain. Lizard's left arm blade had more luck than his right as it was stabbed deeply through Red's right shoulder, forming a large hole in his arm.
Red gritted his teeth; his right shoulder hurt immensely as did his left ear, though that didn't hurt as much. Several drops of blood dripped off the tip of Lizard's blade and he smiled devilishly to himself, he slowly pulled the right blade, which was now smeared with Red's blood, from it's inflicted wound, and placed the blade on Red's head with enough force to inflict a deep wound, he dragged the blade across Red's forehead, all the way down to his right ear, before bringing the blade back behind his own head, in a stabbing position, aiming it at the middle of Red's forehead, a move that, if properly executed, would surely kill him.
"I'm afraid this is gonna be you're last tango, it's too bad, I thought you would have made a better opponent, instead you had to be a sissy opponent, couldn't even stand up to me-" Lizard began to taunt Red with a sly grin on his face.
Red, who at the moment was in an almost unbearable amount of pain, slowly lowered his head down towards the floor; a steady stream of blood bled from his wounds, rolled down his face and fell to the floor.
He looked up at what might be his last sight; he knew it would be if he didn't do something about it. Slowly he reached his left arm behind his body, stealthily, in an effort to find something he could repel Lizard with, his hand fumbled through broken glass, which upon grabbing proceeded to cut the tips of his fingers, he gritted his teeth harder and continued his search, all while Lizard continued to mock Red.
Finally Red's hand found something of momentary value; he now grappled the handle of a large screwdriver in his right palm, Red figured it must have fallen out of the toolbox that had fallen off the table during his and Lizards earlier fight. Red quickly spun the screwdriver around in his palm, moving the knife into a stabbing position and with one swift movement he thrust the 'blade' forwards, stabbing it deeply into something which was both soft and fleshy on Lizards body.
Lizard howled in pain and drew back his arms, relieving his blade from Red's shoulder, Red fell to his arms and knee's and quickly looked backwards to witness the damage he'd caused to Lizard.
Lizard limped backwards with both his blades concealed back in his arms, the screwdriver was stabbed deep into his left leg which caused him to limp instead of walk. He placed a bloody hand on the screwdrivers handle, grappled it roughly and with one hard tug pulled the entire length out of his leg, an impressive feat as the screwdriver's 'blade' looked to be at least seven inches long, pulling the 'blade' from his leg looked to cause him much pain, as his face was now swelled up into a look of pure anguish.
The entire 'blade' of the screwdriver was covered in blood, with blood now streaming freely from his left leg; he tossed the screwdriver across the room fiercely and stared angrily at Red.
"I'll kill you, you son-of-a-bitch!" he shouted as he limped quickly towards Red, both blades jetting out of his arms and a mad look in his eyes, from the one look in his eye's, Red could tell he was going to make good on his statement.
Red had neither the strength nor the energy to fight back against Lizard, instead he crawled across the floor to where the fire axe sat on the ground, Red grabbed it with one hand and using what little strength he had in his left arm pushed his body off the floor just in time to narrowly avoid being sliced through the back by one of Lizards blades. Red kicked his left foot forward, hitting Lizard directly in the chest, knocking him backwards slightly, buying Red a little time.
Lizard slammed a foot down on the floor, regaining his posture as he did, he aimed his blades at Red's chest and lunged his body forwards, this was a move that would surely kill him should he be able to fulfill it, in retaliation and an effort to save his own life, Red swung the axe forwards strongly, using the last bit of his strength. The move was accompanied by a rough feeling in the handle, like Red had just struck down a tree, as well as a disturbing "Slish" like noise which was followed by Lizard howl in pain.
Red tilted his head and caught a glimpse of Lizard drawing his right arm back, his wrist was now reduced to a bleeding stump, Red, not in the least bit concerned or disturbed by this, got to his feet and brought the axe up to his head, ready to finish Lizard if it insured his safety.
Lizard tucked his stump into the chest pocket of his vest, its blood forming a large red stain in the already dark black vest; he aimed his other blade at Red who stood with the axe in a striking position, ready to take Lizard's head off should he make another life threatening move on him. Lizard saw the intensity in Red's eyes, he really wasn't like the heroes he'd seen on the TV, unlike Robin, who he was sure by this point would have surely stopped and made sure Lizard was O.K., Red showed no discomfort or restraint in taking his life, something he was sure he'd truly do should he make another move on him.
"This ain't over" He said in a grim tone as he slowly began to shy into the shadowed part of the office, heading towards the exit. Red, still uneasy on his feet due to the pain, made an attempt after him, slowly he tried to rush after Lizard only to fall against the wall, he dragged his body across the wall, leaving a trail of thick red blood behind him, and finally, after several steps he collapsed on the floor, no longer possessing the strength to walk he fell on his back and painfully fell unconscious.
Several minutes past before Slack awoke, she felt a rough pain in the back of her head and rubbed it with her left arm, she felt a small gash on the back of her head, slowly she stared around the room, which was eerily empty, then a sudden feeling of guilt and anger surged through her body as she slowly began to recall what had happened, they'd lost, they, The Teen Titans, had lost their first 'official' fight, she swallowed and slowly headed out the exit and began her search for her fallen team-mates.
Well That was my first action chapter...how'd I do?. Any way, It's time for another edition of The Captains Crazy Trivia, so saddle up the mule cause there happen to be many bits of trivia.
This Chapter underwent the most drastic number of changes of them all, I literally had to delete more than ten thousand words just to narrow it down to the form it's in today. Before I edited it, it was roughly twenty pages long and had at least twenty thousand words.
The Character of Cain is inspired by actor Stephen Dorf and his character of Deacon Frost in Blade. His name is inspired by the story of Cane and Abel (If you don't know the story, look it up on Wikipedia or Google).
Fox's character is inspired by actress Jessica Gower. At first she was named Chase, but that didn't sound right for Fox, so I changed it to Nova, which sounded to 'alien', so after hectic searching and planning I came up with the name Fox while watching an episode of CSI: Miami (Surprising isn't it) and her powers were inspired (Believe it or not) by the Plasma Pistol from Halo and Halo 2 (You know the one that shoots the green crap), which I came up with due to me only being able to play video games on my brothers old and working Xbox.
Also regarding Fox, if you couldn't tell, she was a little...'friendly' with Tag. Without ruining anything I can say that Fox is...well...let's just say she 'enjoys the company of women over that of men' shall we? whic'll of course lead to a sort of "Love Square" between her, Tag, Lightlad and a secret fourth wheel (Who's it gonna be?)
Quake started off life as a character named Ox, but that sounded too much like Fox and also made me think of Mammoth from the actual show, so I changed him to Quake. I also don't wanna spoil anything but I can say that Quake isn't aware of Fox's...'freindlyness' around women and...well I really don't wanna spoil it.
Lizard also went throug a series of name changes, he first started off as Savage, but that didn't sound to 'cool' so I changed it to Gecko, but I'm saving that name for another character. So now Lizard is Lizard. Also regarding Lizard, his character is heavily inspired by (and based on) Baraka from the Mortal Kombat fighting games, so if you thought he sounded familiar...that's why.
In case you were wondering, the reason Red and Lightlad are the two members of the team that get their asses kicked the most was because it only felt right that those two received the baddest beating. It felt weird and uncomfortable having Slack and Tag getting bruised up because they were women (Not that I'm a sexist...I just think women being beaten is a tad disturbing) and Blizkid's just a kid so I really didn't want him to get smashed through too many walls (Otherwise people'd think I advocate Child Beating...which I don't) So from this chapter forwards Red and Lightlad will be the 'punch magnets' of the team, Slack and Tag will have their fare share of bruises and cuts and Blizkid...well, we'll just have to wait and see won't we?
The fights scenes all came from my head, though I did get some inspiration for some of the fights from several sources. The fight between Lightlad and Quake was inspired by the Fight between Pluto and Doug in The Hills Have Eyes, so If you've seen it...there's a bit of trivia for ya. Red and Lizard's fight was pretty much from my mind, though the stabbing in the leg bit was inspired by a scene from a movie (Who's name I forgot) on Sci-Fi Chanell's: Friday Frightmare (It's a Canadian Channel so I don't know if any of you American readers get it or this refrence, in which case just ignore it as 'a rambling babble' like I'm sure you do the rest of the trivia).
Next Chapter: As our heroes recover from their defeat and take time to heal their wounds, they come up with a plan to exact revenge against the Reapers, though the idea of revenge might just be shared with Cain, who, under orders from Hoffman, will stop at nothing to kill The Titans.
Thanks for reading Chapter 6 Part 2 and hope you enjoyed it, until next time...and please don't forget to review.
